Terror of the Deep
by Braders790
Summary: On his last mission prior to retiring; Steve and his team are in for a hell of a ride as they trek to the darkest depths of the looming chaos that is the fallen underwater utopia of Rapture.
1. Chapter 1

PROLOGUE:

Water trickled smoothly down the stream into a lovely little pond in the peaceful park. There were frogs jumping around the pool carelessly. Many trees were scattered in a random order around the water-side of which the beautiful little stream flowed into. Families of red squirrels thrived in the trees, they called it home. The ground was covered in a stunning layer of a mixture of acorns, leaves of all different colours, tufts of grass, and even lots of wild flowers. Contrary to the majestic beauty of the park, a lone rusty rivet, laid at an angle, just submerged under the still surface was visible. No one knew where it came from; it had always been there, for as long as anyone alive could remember.

A lonely man walked slowly up to the pond. The frogs scarpered, the bolt was unfazed. He looked down at the peaceful trickling water, and the rusty old rivet. A reflection of himself was calmly sat on the surface above the rusty bolt.

He wasn't very tall, but tall enough nonetheless. He always wore a light blue bracelet that he made for his mother when he was young, she never got round to wearing it. A second figure appeared. This time, the person wandered around the pond, so as to face the other man directly from the other side. This man was slightly taller than the first, but by far not as confident in his stature. The first man spoke,

"How's your aquarium?" There was a long pause and the second person had to think about the question before he realized the context of the conversation. The first man was awaiting a reply in which time he was looking down into the murky water below his feet. It was when the second man finally replied that the first man stopped day-dreaming,

"Fine, apart from how most of the small fish have died. I should be getting a new large fish tank soon, that way I'll be able to get bigger fish. I should be able to afford it after we've finished this new mission we've been assigned. Along with that, I'm planning on buying a new apartment".

"Yeah, me an' my wife are saving up for a retirement home in Spain, we've almost got the money and this mission will finish our savings". The two had not 5 years between their ages; the first man was 47, and the second man was 43, they had both been in the army since they were young adults. They looked over at each other for the next second, after which they gazed back down at the still water, listening to the trickling stream nearby. To end the silence, the second person asked,

"Hey, Steve, when are we getting back from the mission?" Steve breathed outwards really heavily before replying,

"They said the whole operation could take as long as 2 days, so we might need to spen' one night there. Where ever it is".

"That'll be tough", the second man said. He continued,

"What actually are we going there to do again?"

"Not sure, but they said that there is this place, that has been unvisited for the past forty years, and our job is to go there and…just…check it out…I guess", Steve stopped a moment and looked up from the rusty rivet that lay at his feet, to instead look over at his friend whom of which was no longer paying attention. Beside this fact, Steve carried on,

"Including you an' me, there's eight of us going", Steve stopped again trying to think of anything else to say. Instead though, it was the second person, who spoke,

"Didn't they say that this mission would be easy? Because I don't want any hard tasks just before retirement".

"They said that this would be a "walk in the park" so I'm sure that we'll be done within one day, they just said it could take up to two days because even if anything goes wrong, that's the maximum amount of time we'll be there for". When Steve stopped, he looked over at his friend again. His mind was blank. So he just concluded,

"You know Harry, retirement will be great".

Steve stared down at his feet, the bolt that had been on its side had now been pushed by the water onto its front.


	2. Chapter 2

SUBDIVISION 1:

DAYS TURN TO HOURS

"You will be sent out in three days time, so you'd better prepare yourselves for the events to come. Seeing as the area has been completely un-visited for forty five years, we think that there will be no problem. You will all go there as a team and work there as a team. If you find anything important or unusual, then contact us via your radios. You could be there for up to two days and the whole operation is predicted to take a minimum of twelve hours". The Operation Manager's voice got drizzled out by the sound of blood rushing to his head. Steve could hear his heart beating, the conversation he had with Harry yesterday made him more relaxed about the mission, but the way that the Operation Manager put it made the mission sound really dangerous. He was in a small briefing room of which they had the operation manager talk to them for the second time about the basic rundown of the mission, it had a soft cream colour and was about the size of the average house living room. The room was neither intimidating nor relaxed, and not the sort of place you'd want to stay in for too long, it was boring and empty. The total contents consisted of just a table in one corner and several chairs; also, there was a whiteboard on one wall that never got used. Steve Breathed quietly, but every breath was loud in his head, all he could hear was his bodily functions. He considered regretting the fact that he agreed to do the mission in the first place, but those thoughts died instantly. To Steve, the whole world around him stood still, and he had not really considered the negatives of the mission before now. Steve took another breath, and he was back in the room. The operation manager's voice amalgamated back into Steve's ears,

"When you get there, your actions must be prompt and make sure you check out the whole area. Also, lastly, when you get back, we'll do a check, to see if there is anything valuable that you have salvaged. Okay, that's all I have to say for now. I'll see you all in two days at o–six-hundred hours for your final briefing. After which you will then be taken to the transport aircraft which will take you to the area. Once you have completed your operation call us straight away and we'll come and get you out of there". When the team was dismissed they all dispersed out of their chairs and towards one of the two exits.

Later in the day, Steve went to find Harry, but it was Harry who found Steve.

"So", Harry sighed, "how do you like the rest of the team".

"Well, I've only met one of them so far an' that is you", Steve answered.

"Seriously, you haven't met any of them yet?" Harry enquired enthusiastically.

"No. Haven't got roun' to it", Steve said back, sighing.

"Don't you think we should get to know the rest of the team before we go on a life threatening operation with them", Harry persisted, making sure he exaggerated the "life threatening".

"Yeah, I guess it would be the best thing to do", Steve finalised. The two hastily left the room of which they were in to find some of the team that they were going to do the preceding mission with.

It was around lunch time, (12:21) when which Steve got acquainted with Jenny, in which time Harry was getting some lunch. Jenny was a light, agile female with a feisty but modest personality. She liked to get involved in all that she could, but she was the sort of person who never considered consequence.. Steve came up to her and said slowly,

"Hi".

"Hello", she said calmly back. Steve went on,

"Are you on this new mission that the operation manager has given us?"

"Yeah I 'am. Why, are you on it too?" she asked.

"Yeah", he stopped for a moment then went on, "By the way, my name is Steve".

"Oh I'm Jenny. Nice to meet you. Um, So does that mean that we're on the same team?"

"Yes, I guess it does. Oh an' I want you to meet my friend, Harry", Steve replied as Harry walked over to join the conversation with a mouthful sandwich.

"Harry, this is Jenny, now I'll leave you two while I go an' get myself some food, cos' I'm quite hungry." Steve left and wandered over to the canteen area.

Harry finished his mouthful and was just about to say something when the feisty Jenny broke in,

"So you and Steve are friends, right?"

"Um, yeah. Are you in the Army with anyone?"

"No, just me", she sighed, then continued, "I haven't been here long and I only know one person besides you and Steve".

"if you don't mind me asking, who is it?" Harry enquired curiously.

"he's a guy called Roderick, kinda' smug, but he knows his stuff", Jenny said ferociously. After this neither of them said anything to each other and Harry thought about whether he could meet Roderick too. Harry then asked,

"Is he in this room at the moment?"

"I dunno, um", she searched the room quickly, scanning her small striking eyes across the edges of the room, she then said, "uh, no, I can't see him. I think he may have left straight after the meeting to go home and have lunch, He might be round later though", she finalised sweetly.

"Oh, okay, thank you. I'll see you later then", Harry said happily.

"Right, bye", Jenny concluded as she went off to get herself some lunch.

The next day was their day off, (they didn't have to go to another mission briefing). So Steve and Harry just decided to stay at home, relax, and prepare for the days ahead. Unfortunately for the two, time does fly, and before Harry could watch the end of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and before Steve could finish his model of a B-62 Battle-fortress, the day was up.

It was only the next morning when it hit Steve, Tomorrow he would be flown away to some remote part of the Atlantic ocean to "scout" a mysterious area. Harry didn't have the same revelation. Overnight, Days, had turned to mere hours. Steve then remembered that he had a final mission briefing at 6:00, he looked at his alarm clock: 5:54, shit. He threw himself out of bed before hastily and scruffily put on his Combat Dress DPM, (Disruptive Pattern Material). He left his house at 5:57 without a shower or breakfast.

Meanwhile at the mission briefing centre, Harry was wondering where the hell Steve was and Jenny, (sitting next to him) was thinking the same. Finally Jenny broke out,

"I hope he gets here before the final mission brief starts".

"yeah", Harry agreed worriedly. Harry then remembered two days ago when Jenny mentioned Roderick, and then he asked,

"Is that guy Roderick in here now?" Jenny did the same as she had done the day before yesterday-search the room thoroughly with one confident sweeping gaze. Then she raised both eyebrows and smiled weakly after which she said quickly,

"Oh yeah, there he is", pointing over at the back right of the room where a broad shouldered man stood with one leg leaning on the wall, the other leaning against the first. He had a cap on at a crooked angle and had black gloves to match his sinister but smirked facial expression. Just by the way he was standing showed he was smug. Let alone the cap and the gloves. He was smoking a ginormous cigar and talking to another man.

"I'd best not disturb him", Harry said.

"right the time is now two minutes past six and Steve still isn't here", Jenny expressed. The fact that Steve was still absent started to worry the both of them.

Steve was coming off of the highway now and he had only 1 mile to go, the time: 6:04 the building was in view but he had to go through 2 traffic lights first.

"C'mon", he kept saying to himself as the traffic lights slowly went green. Lucky for Steve, the next set of traffic lights were also green, so he didn't have to stop. 6:05. He swung into a parking bay and turned off the engine after which he got out the car and instinctively glared down to his watch: 6:06. Steve ran into the building.

Harry looked down at his watch: 6:07. When he looked up again he saw Steve run into the room as fast as he could. Breathing heavily, Steve asked,

"am I late?"

Harry was going to answer but Jenny snapped in,

"yeah, but the briefing hasn't actually started yet, so you're okay".

"Right", Steve said thankfully. Harry then asked cheerfully,

"why are you so late?"

"yeah, why are you so damn late?" Jenny persisted.

"overslept", Steve muttered.


	3. Chapter 3

SUBDIVISION 2:

TRIP TO NOWHERE

It was when the three boarded the transport aircraft when they got a good look at the other four team members, (excluding Roderick) there were two females and two males. Jenny went straight over to talk to one of the females, while Steve and Harry each met the other two men. One of the men was called Jim, he was 21 and had only just joined the army, he was quite obviously nervous and by the looks of it, didn't really listen much in all those briefing meetings. He was quite tall and somewhat thin. The girl that Jenny met was called Sally, she was in her thirties and had a very up-beat attitude, along with a pushy tone of voice. On Jenny's opinion she sounded very dedicated to the success of the mission. The final male that had spoken to Steve was a veteran, and considered the leader of most operations. He didn't reveal his age, but he said that the rest of the team called him "Boss" . Lastly, Jenny went over to speak to the last woman, a tall dark haired person, she looked gothic. Jenny didn't get much of a reply, just a shy,

"Hi". Nonetheless, she did seem like she had the right stuff for this sort of mission.

The plane was rather small, but big enough to hold one, maybe two more people, the pilot and co-pilot sat comfortably in the front talking to the ATC, (Air Traffic Control) the wait for harry was arduous, whereas Steve just wanted to stay on the plane and not go at all, not because he was cowardly, but because he simply didn't want to go. He had had enough of the army and was ready to quit, if he had a choice, he would quit this very second, unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Jenny seemed excited to depart, fidgeting in her seat. Roderick was sitting broadly taking up as much space as he could while finishing his last cigar from one of his many packets. He seemed completely relaxed. Jim, was the complete opposite, he looked terrified and was twiddling his thumbs, rubbing his hair, clutching his clothes and looking meaninglessly at the floor as in to express his extreme nervousness. Jim was in charge of the ammo bag. The Boss was sitting at the side of the aircraft, staring out of one of two windows, he had a powerful stature in the way that he sat, and never gave up his commanding gaze. Sally, was leaning back in her chair talking to the Boss, (whom wasn't listening). Lastly, the gothic girl sat quietly staring out of the other window breathing slowly and heavily. She had a frown on her face, and a "fed-up" look. Each of them held one ranged firearm. The Boss held 2, (a ranged firearm and a pistol).

After 5 minutes, everyone started to look impatient, even the Boss. But finally, the pilots stopped their extremely long conversation with the ATC and slowly started flipping switches up, Harry saw that one was labelled, "FUEL INJECTION MODERATOR". And Steve saw a worrying switch, (that hadn't been turned on) called "COCKPIT EJECTION SWITCH". Underneath this button it had a long list of safety regulations and another list of when and when not to use it.

Before long, The high pitched _whirr_ of the jet engines could be heard. The aircraft started to vibrate lightly, and the plane started to creep forward across the runway. As it gained speed, Harry's stomach churned, and Steve didn't feel much different either, the only person left on the whole plane, (besides the pilots) that didn't seem fazed by the flight, was the Boss. Although, the Boss didn't say his age Steve reckoned he was at least 45.

The Aircraft was travelling at a rather high speed now and near the end of the runway. The high pitched _whirr _got louder and in the next second, the plane slowly rose. From the view that Steve got from the window, he could just see the ground slowly disappear. They were in flight.

After the transport aircraft had a gained a high altitude and a massive speed the engines started to quieten down a little. The journey ahead would be long one, but surprisingly, it only took half an hour before the Atlantic ocean was underneath them. The Boss kept looking out of the window as did the Gothic girl. Jim sat more comfortably in his seat. Roderick and sally had gotten into a conversation,

"Hi", she said.

"Hello", muttered Roderick's deep voice in return.

"how do you think the mission will go?"

"fine, as long as I'm here, I'm sure nothing's gonna' go wrong. Why did you join the army?" asked Roderick.

"Um, well" she paused and thought, noticing that she didn't really actually know. So she brought her mind back to when she was 19 and remembered, before she forgot again sally said,

"I wanted some money to go to uni' but in the end I just stuck with the army cos' I thought it was really exciting", she stopped and breathed before thinking again then she curiously asked,

"why did you join the army then?"

"Long story", he deeply replied, "I'll shorten it down though. When I was 17, my father was also in the army, I had always wanted to join him. Then he went on a reconnaissance mission to Iraq and never came back, reports soon came to me that he had been killed by a roadside bomb. Then, as I had always promised, I joined the army". He sighed and looked sad for a moment while looking down at the floor of the aircraft.

"Okay", sally replied subtly, nodding slowly.

Later, there was no difference in the surroundings of the aircraft. And things started to get boring, Harry being naturally quite fidgety started to become restless; and Jenny had lost her enthusiasm. Steve was no different, he almost fell asleep at one point, it was a wonder to him how the pilots coped. "practice" he thought. Just then Jenny spoke,

"Who in here, doesn't want to be in here?" Steve was surprised at her remark, and then thought, did he really want to be here. No. he put his hand up regretfully, and to his surprise found that so did everyone else, (with the exception of the Boss). Jenny nodded and put her own hand down, before whispering to herself,

"I thought so". Steve then thought about what Jenny really meant by what she said, then he thought, "if I don't want to be here, then why am I here?" after he thought this, an immediate list of several things popped into his head consisting of the fact that he needed to buy a retirement home and the fact that this was his last mission before retirement. But besides that, why was he really here. On this plane. On a trip to nowhere?

Later the plane started to slow quite noticeably but the pilots said it was just some Atlantic winds that affect the aerodynamics of the aircraft slowing it helplessly to a crawl. The sea swept slowly beneath the plane exactly like it did 3 hours before when they just left the coast. Things were looking bleak, the plane was silent, and no one even bothered to say anything. Soon though, the transport aircraft started to speed up again.

This had been the longest trip of Harry's life, and at one point he actually stood up to relieve his restlessness, some others followed, including the Goth, Jim and Jenny who stood up to stretch. Almost immediately the Co-pilot told them that they were violating the rules and regulations of aircraft transit. Then to everyone's relief, afterwards he said,

"We will be landing soon, please brace. As you should know, there isn't a runway, so we'll be landing on the water". After he said this everyone suddenly looked worried, Steve said hastily,

"What, we didn't get told that".

"Well, that's what's happening, so get over it", replied the Co-pilot meanly.

Within minutes the aircraft had lost most of its altitude and was now slowing, even the _whirr _of the engines was getting yet deeper in pitch. And suddenly there was the crashing sound of water and the aircraft shuddered, the plane was still travelling relatively quickly but was slowing, fast. Before Steve knew it the plane was at a standstill, he thought, "Am I in hell". Outside the aircraft stood a massive lighthouse type structure at least 200 metres high with a huge powerful light at the top that could probably be seen from many miles away, the reason Steve didn't see it earlier was because he didn't expect there to be such a spectacle in the first place so didn't bother looking. At the very bottom of the lighthouse was a small staircase leading round the back of the tower. As everyone gasped, the pilot boringly said,

"Right", he said, "get off here and be back here at twelve hundred and thirty hours in two days at the latest. If you finish before then just call the operation manager and he'll direct us back to pick you up".

"Where do we go though", asked Jenny relevantly.

"Jus' swim over there to the tower and check it out like the operation manager said okay", said the pilot stressfully.

"right", she said back breathing out so that what she said was almost a whisper. The eight left the aircraft with the Boss leaving last. It didn't take long for them all to swim to the half-submerged staircase - it was only 15 metres away, (accept for Jim, who had to lug a 10kg bag of ammo with him). After this the Boss led them round the back of the tower up the slowly sloping up staircase. All of them were surprised to find a colossal door left ajar…


	4. Chapter 4

SUBDIVISION 3:

WHERE'S RAPTURE?

The eight stood speechlessly at the door and looked up at it in shock, even the Boss. The slightly open door invited them in, besides the fact that it completely terrified the lot. Roderick decided to carelessly enter first. He saw darkness, darkness, and more darkness. Then suddenly a loud blinking sound echoed around as an industrial standard light fitting slowly flickered to life. Roderick thought, "there must be motion sensors".

The room at which he was present was a huge cylindrical room that shot up so high that the ceiling was invisible – just a black mass. All around the walls were iron cast statues of arms grasping chains and there was a large circular hole in the centre of room with a thick gold bar running around the edge acting as a railing. In the background an ambient tune was playing with the lyrics: "Rise Rapture rise". The room truly was glorious, the walls sparkled in the light and the floor glistened with an almost blinding glare as if someone had polished it just this morning. This room was the definition of pristine. As Roderick persisted through the intriguing room, the others followed; Jim entered last still struggling with the ammo bag. As Roderick was about to walk into blackness again, another light slowly blinked awake to reveal a grand staircase leading down into a small room. The boss caught up with Roderick at this point anxious to see what discoveries lay ahead. The others slowly and cautiously walked behind them.

Once the eight had all entered the small room at the bottom of the staircase, they were wondering where the hell they were supposed to go now; it seemed to be a dead end. Then Just as Steve started to speculate in his mind and Harry shook his head, a huge rumble struck with a loud clanking noise. And another giant door rose before them with a big chain dangling down the side as if to counter-balance the immense weight. The door rose very slowly, and while it was lifting up, the whole room was completely silent, besides the _clank clank clank _of the door and the scared heavy breathing of Jim. Finally, the door had finished rising. Boss put his hands out to his side to stop people rushing ahead of him, and then preceded slowly forwards himself, into a completely dark room. The reason he did this, was that he expected another light to turn on. But no light came…

The boss stopped, waiting for the light to turn on cue like it did before. Still no light. He got his emergency LED torch out and shone it into the dark abyss that was ahead. The other seven team members couldn't even see the Boss any more he had gone so far into the darkness.

"C'mon then pussies, only a bit o' dark, get your own torches out", shouted the Boss from nowhere.

"Fine", Roderick said quietly, but loud enough so that everyone except the Boss could hear. He then stepped into the darkness and disappeared from view. The others soon followed.

At the end of what seemed like a 100m long room was a huge power outlet, but there was something wrong with it. There were huge bolts of electricity jetting out from every which way and it seemed that this was the cause of there being no light. Despite the long distance, because of the Boss's fitness and promptness, he got there in no time.

"Oh my goodness", broadly said the Boss. The other seven ran up to him in curiosity.

"What the fuck", said Roderick looking both puzzled and hostile.

The electrical outlet was perfectly normal and all in one piece from what they could see. Accept from one horrific gesture. Although at first they doubted it, (because they were not close enough, and couldn't get any closer, because of the high risk of being electrocuted) it seemed to be the truth. From what it seemed to them, the electrical outlet was stained in blood and had a mighty gash in the side. Steve thought "what could have possibly done that?" for it was an indentation so big it couldn't have made by anything less than a wrecking ball. Then Jim burst out,

"Oh my god, look, look, down there!" everyone looked beneath where the electrical outlet was and saw nothing, but when Boss shone his torch on it again everyone gasped in terror. The floor beneath them was too, drenched in blood, and hosting the mess was a corpse. A fresh corpse. No more than a week old. Goth, Harry, Jenny and Roderick all shook their heads in disbelief. The boss took control of the situation and said,

"Don't go near it". Everyone was quiet. The body on the floor looked as if the person it used to be was in their thirties when they died. "Impossible. This place got abandoned over 40 years ago" thought Jenny.

"I think we should just ignore this and carry on", said the Boss, for the first time freaked out.

"Don't you think we should report back about this", cleverly suggested Jenny.

"Hmm", shortly thought the Boss, "that would be a good idea". He hastily dialled a pad on his belt and out shot a short beeping noise before the sound turned to Static. After 17 seconds of what felt like 17 minutes a welcoming American accented voice came from the speaker in his belt,

"Hello, this is um, central mission control".

"Yeah, hi, we're in…wherever it is and we've already found some strange activity. There was a 2 second delay before the nice voice replied,

"Could you um, describe to me what you have um, encountered?"

"Yeah…Yeah we've come across this electrical outlet that's been damaged a lot. And there is a fresh corpse… laying right in front of it".

"Wow. That's weird, I'll relay that to the operation manager as soon as I can. Right, keep up the good work. Also, just before you called in, the operation manager said we needed to know some stuff about the area you're exploring, so I found out that the city you're in was built in the early thirties. It's called rapture. Unfortunately, the city fell apart in the mid-fifties, and civil war broke out. That's all we know about it so far", said the uplifting voice. The Boss said back,

"What so we're in Rapture?" The voice more drearily replied,

"You' are in it, yes".


	5. Chapter 5

SUBDIVISION 4:

PROBLEM

"What?" broadly said the boss, "they've sent us into a fucking warzone? The bastards. And they didn't even bloody tell us. Son of a…"

"Right, calm down now", the voice said rather aggressively.

"Honestly, couldn't the fucking operation manag..."

"SHUT-UP", the voice antagonistically yelled, "The operation manager clearly stated that you were to scout the area and nothing else! The whereabouts is a different matter; he had no need to mention that. And anyway, how were we supposed to know how shit it is down there, that's your job to find out!" The man callously shouted, before cutting out and leaving the group standing there, all terrified, in the dark, with a gruelling blood stained corpse sitting 10 feet to their left. Hell it was.

Sally shook her head and looked at the floor blankly, Jim was whimpering, Harry, nervous as he was, was shaking violently, and even the boss seemed short tempered and paranoid. Steve, Jenny, Goth, and Roderick, seemed at least slightly calm. As the Boss was fuming, Roderick decided he would be temporary leader and exclaimed that it would be safer if everyone loaded their weapons to avoid the fate of what seemed to have happened to the corpse, god knows what. So Jim gave up the bag of ammunition and all of them loaded up their weapons for the first time.

It took best part of 10 minutes for them all to get their acts back together, but all of them still seemed at least shocked. Although Steve was calm, he couldn't believe what he just saw, and he knew all too well that it was only probably going to get worse. Seemingly fearlessly, the eight of them went through another chain-lift door which was near the power outlet. They were presented with a circular room with more iron cast arms in the walls. The Boss took the lead again, he looked into the dark room and was just able to see the faint outline of what seemed to be a staircase, he said firmly,

"Get your torches out, you'll need them", while getting out his own. The addition of eight emergency LED torches completely brought the place to life. It appeared that the walls were made of gold and there was the unmistakable sound of water. There was a staircase, but not like the Boss had expected; it went around the edge of the room. Going down…

He went first, with the rest of the team following. It got darker and darker as they trekked deeper. Finally, another light flickered on to reveal another room, but there seemed to be no other doors or passages, besides the one they had just come from. Instead, there was something completely surprising. Suspended on a rusting chain, swinging slowly, was a gold cabin, with a huge sheet of 10 inch thick glass at the front. Oddly, the cabin was spherical and had a small light at the top right. It was an elevator. The boss urged onwards towards the cabin, He looked up to be presented with a gargantuan golden sign that read "Bathysphere". The boss simply looked at it staggered, for he knew that a bathysphere was just a fancy name for a submersible. Inside the bathysphere was a vast lever, encased in a golden box, it had 2 settings, "Up" and "Down", but the "Up" setting was blacked out because it was quite plainly already at the top. The whole team knew it was inevitable that they would have to go down.

The eight of them clambered into the rather large bathysphere; it rocked and swayed as they did. Also there were infrequent loud creeks where the old chain was under strain. Finally, after Goth had climbed in they were all inside. Roderick, with the help of Steve, hauled the half tonne door of 10 inch glass close. When it met with the door frame, the weight of the door shook the bathysphere and it started swaying again. Once everyone had sat down, and the ammo bag was settled on the floor, The Boss bravely, (with difficulty) pulled the incredibly stiff lever. The bathysphere shuddered violently and shook with such force that Jim, Harry and Jenny barely stayed in their seats. The vibrations started to ease of and it was obvious that they were dropping; Steve looked out the window and said,

"Where is this taking us, an' how far down d'you think it goes?"

Jenny also asked,

"How long are we gonna be down here?"

"Firstly, I have no idea where this is taking us, and as for your second question Steve, down I would suspect", the boss answered, "and as for your question Jenny, we probably won't be here much…longer… Oh my god". As the bathysphere surged downwards the undercarriage of the lighthouse rushed above them and revealed paradise. Hundreds of buildings lit up by beautiful neon lights as far as the eye could see. Some were green. Some were turquoise. Some were red. Some were blue. Each and every tower was an object of beauty with its projecting air-tight balconies and distinctive conventional architecture. Most of the buildings had bridges spanning between them. There were many different sorts of squid and fish swarming around the wondrous towers. Every building was unique, each a work of art, no two towers were the same; it truly was an amazing spectacle of what man can accomplish. The enormous buildings went as deep as the eye could see and as high as about 100m below the surface. All of this was hundreds of metres under the Atlantic Ocean!

Suddenly the bathysphere stopped, and the whole craft shook and swung pugnaciously, after which it started to shoot forwards, towards this tunnel with a colossal sign that read "Bathysphere Station". But the "y" in "Bathysphere" was blacked out as the light had brocken It was clear that they were nearly at their destination…

The Bathysphere drew closer and closer to the platform, at an excruciatingly slow speed. When they finally arrived at the station the bathysphere juddered and bashed forcefully against the side of the platform, so much so that at one point the chain groaned under the pressure. There was a loud "_bing_" and the door slowly opened itself with great difficulty. As soon as the eight had all stepped out of the craft, it was clear that they were in far more danger than they were in earlier. The walls were no longer made gold, but instead of a rotting concrete where every square foot of it, there was at least one splat of blood. The same could not be said for the floor, of which had been almost completely covered in puddles of blood and worse still, peoples insides, were draped carelessly over the scenery. There was blood constantly dripping from the ceiling; It was not water they had heard earlier. The floor was made of what looked like wood that had been soaked through with water, then blood on top, with every step that each of them made, it creaked dangerously. Steve looked back at the heavenly bathysphere, regretting everything.

"What the fuck happened to this darned place?" demanded Steve.

"God knows", shyly replied Goth. Jenny then said,

"This is stupid, why the hell are we here? Surely they should have had some hint of how horrific it is down here?" Roderick assumed that by "they" Jenny meant the operation commanders.

"Well plainly they didn't so we'll just have to get on with it and not make a fuss, which we are", finalised Roderick.

"Hopefully we'll all make it out of here fine, and why not, this place is completely deserted, apart from our earlier encounter", said the Boss. And with that, the eight of them went on their way.

Things only got worse, by the time they reached the next doorway, which was wreathed in darkness, Jim announced,

"Oh, fuck. Shit, I bloody well left the ammo bag in the other bathysphere station"…


	6. Chapter 6

SUBDIVISION 5:

THE AMMO BAG

"WHAT?" roared the Boss, "YOU MEAN, YOU'VE LEFT THE AMMO BAG, OUR ONLY SOURCE OF AMMUNITION, BACK AT THE SURFACE!"

"yes", whimpered Jim.

"FUCK SAKE", the Boss shouted, before sighing loudly and deeply. Clearly, Steve thought, the Boss wasn't in the best of moods with Jim at the moment. The Boss put his face in his hand and shook his head. The others, (excluding Jim) also seemed disappointed. The team seemed to have gone in shock because they would have never have expected something like this to ever happen. Harry bit his nails, Jenny fiddled with her hair worriedly, and Goth looked at the floor as if in deep thought, she was probably thinking the same thing as Steve.

It was inevitable that they would have to return through the bathysphere to collect the ammo bag and after quite a long discussion over whether they should split up or stick together, They all decided that splitting up would be nothing less than stupid. The Boss lead them back into the bathysphere, Where Steve and Roderick heaved the door shut, once again the weight of the door made the bathysphere dangerously shudder. After it had stopped quaking the Boss pushed the lever up, to go up. The Bathysphere shook and swayed, it clanged against the sides of the platform, then in the next few seconds it's started ascending at a steady speed. They could see the horrific room they were just in scrolling down before them. Then the room disappeared completely and Harry was almost thankful that they didn't have to stay there for now.

Once again the whole team was amazed at the glorious spectacle which was the exterior of "Rapture". This time it was different though, all of the lights in the bottom half of "Rapture" had been turned off, it was completely black beneath them, yet the city was still there. Who could have possibly turned the lights off? Steve thought, he said to Jenny,

"I swear that earlier I was able to see below us as well".

"Yeah, so could I, but who could've turned them off?"

"Ya see, I have no idea", Steve said back.

"D'you think that it could be some sort of timed power outage" Jenny suggested.

"Yeah, or it could just be an unexpected power cut". Then the Boss said,

"Right we're almost here, make sure that you are prepared for anything that might happen, and have your torches at the ready. Just in case". The Bathysphere started shaking sadistically once again as it slowed up to the station platform. Finally it came to a horribly uncomfortable stop where The bathysphere actually bashed recklessly against the automatic crank carrying the submersible up and down.

"Right get out", the Boss ordered. He seemed to be in a more serious mood. Everyone got out carefully but confidently. Then with difficulty Harry shoved the door close behind him. They walked into the light of the room, they didn't need their torches. The ammo bag was not to be seen.

"HAAAARGH", hissed something. The eight stood dead still, holding their breaths with their eyes wide open, none of them blinked. Suddenly, the lights started flickering wildly. There was a constant buzzing sound where the lights were struggling to stay on, and then they expired. Everyone instinctively immediately grabbed their torches with haste and turned them on. Light filled the room, and the golden walls were once again visible. There was a problem though, only seven torches were on. Jim was missing…

Steve thought that this was very odd because no one, not even himself heard Jim leave the small amount of safety there was within the group. There was a clanging sound coming from the edges of the room, and that horrible sound of metal on metal. Then the rest of the team heard hope,

"HEY, HEEEELP!" following this was the sound of coughing blood. Nothing else. The team could not for their lives locate the whereabouts of Jim, because his cry for help just echoed around every edge of the circular room, so no source could be pin-pointed.

Finally, a body fell from the ceiling, ripped, and shredded. Still breathing. The Boss came out of his terrified trance and rushed over to Jim. His leg had been ripped off, and one of his arms was crushed and bleeding. His clothes were tattered and his torch was smashed in many pieces by his side. Jims head was bleeding severely, and he was almost unconscious. Then something else fell from the ceiling…

It landed on Jim's sternum and instantaneously jumped off again, over to the other side of the room. Its speed was unbelievable. Sally stayed with a very nearly dead Jim, while the others got their pre-loaded guns out and waited for the thing to return. Jim was in a bad shape, His crushed arm was now coated in his own blood, and what was left of his leg was bleeding out rapidly, his smashed sternum had misshapen Jim's chest into a series of bumps, much like a mountain range. Every inch of his body was shaking, or bleeding. Then Jim's head started to go white, he was losing vital blood to the brain. Sally knew that there was nothing she could do to save Jim from his inevitable fate. Jim fell unconscious. Then the bleeding stopped, so did the breathing. Jim was in-fact. Dead.

"NOOOOO!" Sally shouted with rage. She got her own gun out and re-joined the horrified group. Suddenly, the thing leapt out of the darkness and struck Goth in face with a monumental thump, it then landed behind the team, before standing up straight from its crouched stature. The seven of them immediately opened fire shooting hundreds and hundreds of bullets into the thing that killed Jim. It flailed about and fell to the ground with more holes than flesh. Each of the team used about half of their first clip of 30 rounds, (give or take 2 bullets).

The thing was quite like a human, 2 arms, 2 legs, 1 head. But each vein was bright purple and protruded broadly from the yellowing skin. Its head was misshapen and it had many bulges and lumps. The main part of its body was pretty normal except for the gap in its side. Weirdly it was wearing no footwear and the team could see that it only had 3 toes on one foot, and 6 on the other.

After this, Goth fell to the ground clamping her face; it had a gash larger than her hand.

"AAAAAAAH", she whelped in pain. Most of her cheek had been ripped off, and one ear was partially gone. She was bleeding badly. The Boss crouched down beside her, breathing heavily over what had just happened. He removed from his pocket a large bandage, which he used to quickly cover the affected side of her face; it contained most of the bleeding. She continued to shout in pain for it wasn't any old gash, with it, some of her teeth had been yanked out with the blow to the face, and some of the gum.

Jim's death was truly the eye-opener, for now they all knew, (especially Goth) that they would need to up their guard, because this wasn't any old scout mission.

It didn't take long to find the ammo bag, concealed under another corpse; Roderick was the only one stupidly brave enough to grab it from beneath the cadaver.

JIM-Status: DESEACED

Time Of Death: 7-4-11 at 15:27


	7. Chapter 7

SUBDIVISION 6:

THE HUMAN ENCOUNTER

All startled, the team cautiously made its way back to the bathysphere to return to the depths of "Rapture" since there was no other place to go. So they all clambered in once more, and heaved the door shut. The Boss pulled the lever down, and they were on their way.

The Boss decided that it was a good time to call in the mission centre, which wasn't such a bad idea when considering the circumstances. He reached down to his belt and grabbed his radio, before dialling a number. Then the familiar beep started, all the Boss had to do was wait. But after the 2 minute long beeping had finished, (indicating that no one had answered) the Boss re-dialled. Still nothing. Maybe it was just because they couldn't get a signal down here, or not.

When the team had reached the end of the rail once again, they walked out one by one, startled…

For in front of them was another one of those things. Like what killed Jim.

"Oh sshhhit", Steve said, clearly knowing of what may lie ahead. The Boss rapidly got his gun out just when the thing said,

"No shoot, no shoot, no shoot!" Could it be. Really be, a human?

The whole team still had their guns raised; not taking any chances. If it was a human it clearly couldn't speak very good English. Unfortunately the one bullet that had managed to slip out of Roderick's gun had hit it right in the leg. A split second later it reached down and grabbed it's knee, which hosted a 1.5cm hole. The man shouted,

"OOOOOOWWW, why you do that, I said no friggin shoot you bastard". The Man was Average height and has long black hair like a rock star. He was fairly thin and had quite a few spots on his face. He carried a small knife and a diagram of a Bathysphere. On one of his hands one of his fingers was missing.

"Okay, okay, sorry, I thought you were one of those things".

"Well I'm clearly fucking not you can see".

"Oh my god, I really didn't mean that", apologised Roderick.

"Get I up off the floor, I've hadda bad day already now I shot. FUUUUCKK SAKE!", he said in anger.

"We need to get you somewhere safe", the Boss intervened.

"NO. No. I show you camp if you follow I. There is many survivors from civil war".

"Really?" the Boss asked in amazement.

"Of fucking course", the man hastily replied, "Now get I up from this wet floor and I take you to camp. C'mon".

"Ok", the Boss finalised, before picking up the man and supporting him with his shoulder. With a limp, the man pointed in the direction of where they needed to go.

"Why hell are you here?" the man asked.

"Us?" he sighed, "we're here because we were sent here on a mission. We're in the marines you see and our mission commander said that he saw some thermal activity around this area, so he sends us here to scout it. More like a suicide run to me", The Boss informatively replied, "Why are you out in the open?" the Boss asked.

"I sent here 'cos team leader said that he heard the um b…bathysphere and said it not possible 'cos no one ever uses it and here me am to check it out".

"Oh, okay", reassured the Boss.

"Hey, um, how much further is it to the, uh, camp?" Harry inquired.

"Yeah it's not much only 'nuther three hundred fifty yards.

Suddenly loud footsteps echoed the blood stained room. The team raised their guns once more; Roderick did it with less promptness and enthuse. Then a wonky figure immerged from the darkness strewn with rips and tears in its un-even skin without a doubt this was another one of them things. But to the whole team's surprise gunshots could be heard yet no one was firing. Then Sally dropped to the ground grasping her newly founded wounds as more and more bullets pumped into her broad body. The thing had opened fire on them. They all shot back emptying their clips. Enough of the bullets hit the thing to make its body flop to the ground dropping its weapon. Once the team had used the rest of their half used clip, (from earlier), they rushed straight over to Sally who was mostly covered in her own blood and the saddest part was that her face had been shot so much she was now unrecognisable. She was quite clearly dead and there was nothing the team could do about it.

SALLY-Status: DESEACED

Time Of Death: 7-4-11 at 15:58

Meanwhile somewhere at mission control:

"Sir. They've found survivors".

"WHAT, THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE, IT'S BEEN 40 FUCKING YEARS SINCE ANYONE LAST HEARD OF THE DARNED PLACE!"

"Although, a second one of them has just been killed".

"Good, they'll probably all be dead in no time. I bet they'll regret what they've done sooner or later".

"Are you going to send them your little present yet".

"No, the time is not right".

"By the way, we received two calls from them".

"And did you reply?"

"No, like you said sir".

"Good".

Back in rapture things weren't going well, they'd lost 2 members in less than 1 hour, and it was crystal clear that they really needed to be more careful and prepared. The team had already reloaded all their weapons using up some more of the clips from the ammo bag. Roderick also suggested to the Boss that it would be safer if they all carried a spare ammo clip in case they had to reload urgently. The Boss approved of this and they all took one more ammo clip each from the bag. The Boss could see that they were going to run out of ammo sooner or later. By now Goth's injury had stabilised but she was still in agonising pain. The man then said,

"Sorry for your loss, I name is Tom jus' so you know".

"Okay, you can call me the Boss", The Boss replied.

Tom's leg injury no longer hurt as much and he could walk, (just) without assistance.

"You know", he said, "In hay-day of this place, life was fantastic. People used just lounge around and relax looking out into beautiful surroundings. But Andrew Ryan got power crazy, he high on Adam and took over everything. The citizens rebelled. T…two factions formed, Ryan versus Fontaine. Fontaine, also wanted power, but Andrew Ryan was r…reluctant give him any".

"Tell me about this Fontaine bloke", asked Steve, walking along side.

"Fontaine. Fontaine was terrible man, but much better than Ryan. He the founder of Fontaine Futuristics, great company in its time but after rapture fell he ditched his organization and strived t…to kill Andrew", he replied intently.

"So, Fontaine"

"Frank Fontaine actually", interrupted Tom.

"Okay, so Frank Fontaine owned an organisation called Fontaine Futuristics and he had a lifelong grudge over Andrew Ryan", finished Steve.

"That's right", Tom replied, "we're close, I don't know exactly but could be about hundred fifty yards away".

"What, the camp?" asked Steve and the Boss at the same time.

"Yeah, where else", answered Tom.

"If you don't mind me asking", said Harry, "How did you lose your finger?"

"Oh this?" Tom said pointing at his stump that was where his middle finger should be.

"Yeah that", harry said quickly.

"Oh, about three years ago, give take six months I was terrorized by a humanoid beast, we call them Splicers. Twas like what killed your Sally. Tall, ugly, covered in blood, had holes in it, and stank of Adam".

"What's Adam" harry quite cleverly questioned.

"I cannot remember exactly and it is hard for me to explain, but sure did ruin this most fantastic place".


End file.
